No use turning him to a forward because his Achilles heel is that he's just a bad and disrespectful kid. PERIOD.

People who hope to turn around these character issues are overly optimistic. Under the spotlight since he was 14 years old and he has yet to learn in three years. If it cant be done in his draft year then hes not going to clean up his act now.

On talent he is a top 10 pick but I have a hard time believing a team rolls the dice on him with a 1st round pick. His only chance is if a team with multiple picks in the 1st decides to gamble.

“It was a couple of years ago and we were chasing the game and the coach wouldn’t put me on the ice,” Laine said. “I was young and I couldn’t handle it. I was used to playing those minutes. I was pissed off and when we were standing on the line at the end, I said to a couple of guys, ‘I want to punch or take down the coach.’ I showed the middle finger to the bench, which the coach didn’t see. But the guys I was talking to on the ice, they told their agents and the agents told the media and it blew up. It was in the papers and it was a mess. The coach didn’t hear anything from me. I didn’t threaten his life like some media said. Not even close.”
Stubb was in the rink that day and says it wasn’t a defining moment for Laine.
“He was just a boy,” Stubb said. “Now he’s a man. I’ve watched him play a lot of hockey and I’ve talked to people from his hometown and they say good things about him. I spent some time with him on the flight from Finland to Buffalo and I saw a polite young man who has matured.”
Laine says lessons were learned."

No use turning him to a forward because his Achilles heel is that he's just a bad and disrespectful kid. PERIOD.

People who hope to turn around these character issues are overly optimistic. Under the spotlight since he was 14 years old and he has yet to learn in three years. If it cant be done in his draft year then hes not going to clean up his act now.

On talent he is a top 10 pick but I have a hard time believing a team rolls the dice on him with a 1st round pick. His only chance is if a team with multiple picks in the 1st decides to gamble.

Click to expand...

No, he is not a top10 pick based on talent. Probably a late 1st talent who ends up late 2nd/early 3rd round.

What exactly is everyone talking about making this player toxic? What's the issue? I haven't heard anything bad about him (except for people saying HF) and even then no one will actually say what he's allegedly done.

What exactly is everyone talking about making this player toxic? What's the issue? I haven't heard anything bad about him (except for people saying HF) and even then no one will actually say what he's allegedly done.

Click to expand...

Not going to drag a kid through the mud with specifics but to point it generally he has no respect. Ask his coaches and management off the record what kind of kid he is.

What exactly is everyone talking about making this player toxic? What's the issue? I haven't heard anything bad about him (except for people saying HF) and even then no one will actually say what he's allegedly done.

Click to expand...

He's been banished to the dressing twice by his team for being disrespectful to the coach. This is under two different coaches in two different years. This year that led to him getting suspended by the team for a game.

Everything else is behind the scenes and built to a situation like that.

As for would he go top 10 without the character issues. It depends if you are trying to isolate the off-ice stuff, with the on-ice issues. As, his complete lack of effort defensively and proneness to pinch and be the 4th man back, are all lumped in with it. If he was a perfect kid off the ice, but still did those things, its debatable if he'd be a top 10 pick.

Anthony DeAngelo pretty easily outperformed him in nearly every facet of the game in his draft year while playing less games....and from all accounts less attitude issues than this kid (had issues no doubt, but not like this) and he barely cracked the top 20...on skill alone, he was/is behind DeAngelo, and on attitude not helping his cause much. without the attitude I doubt he goes any higher than DeAngelo did because of the non existent defense he plays...

I remember one instance this year, Game 6 Guelph verse Kitchener in round 1 that sums up Merkley. The Storm call a time out down by a goal with a couple of minutes left and Merkley stands a couple feet from the bench looking everywhere but the clip board, effectively ignoring the coaching staff and the play that has been drawn up on the white board. On the ensuing face the puck comes to Ryan and he holds the puck, walks the line, spins off of a Ranger and drives the lane creating a good scoring chance.

He does not listen to coaching but has so much talent it has worked for him thus far.

I think he can thrive in the right situation, but the risk involved will make him a late 1st /early 2nd pick. Really the skating and offensive instincts are too good to overlook based on these character flaws.

Anthony DeAngelo pretty easily outperformed him in nearly every facet of the game in his draft year while playing less games....and from all accounts less attitude issues than this kid (had issues no doubt, but not like this) and he barely cracked the top 20...on skill alone, he was/is behind DeAngelo, and on attitude not helping his cause much. without the attitude I doubt he goes any higher than DeAngelo did because of the non existent defense he plays...

Click to expand...

If that's the case of him being "less" of a player and not as skilled ... seeing Deangelo play for 3 different Orgs in 3 seasons and not be able to crack any of the 3's line up consistently......
I can't see any reason a team drafts this kid before 4th round

Anthony DeAngelo pretty easily outperformed him in nearly every facet of the game in his draft year while playing less games....and from all accounts less attitude issues than this kid (had issues no doubt, but not like this) and he barely cracked the top 20...on skill alone, he was/is behind DeAngelo, and on attitude not helping his cause much. without the attitude I doubt he goes any higher than DeAngelo did because of the non existent defense he plays...

Click to expand...

DeAngelo had very serious anger management issues. There are different types of issues, which one is worse is up for debate. DeAngelo actually tried though. Although, DeAngelo manifested his issues in an absolutely despicable and racist behavior.

He's been banished to the dressing twice by his team for being disrespectful to the coach. This is under two different coaches in two different years. This year that led to him getting suspended by the team for a game.

Everything else is behind the scenes and built to a situation like that.

As for would he go top 10 without the character issues. It depends if you are trying to isolate the off-ice stuff, with the on-ice issues. As, his complete lack of effort defensively and proneness to pinch and be the 4th man back, are all lumped in with it. If he was a perfect kid off the ice, but still did those things, its debatable if he'd be a top 10 pick.

Click to expand...

Just for the record, is this all that we know about Merkley's off-ice "character issues" - that he has not gotten along with his coaches?

I am always skeptical about stories like this, because in many instances of job-related behavior "character issues" and "difficult" are used as code words by some people to dismiss individuals who have unique personalities and identities.

Hockey locker rooms have very rigid cultures and hierarchies. We know PK Subban has had struggles fitting in and we know that he is an upstanding person. Although I am not suggesting that Merkley is the same type of guy, maybe skepticism about some of these insinuations is warranted.

DeAngelo has a documented history of using homophobic and racist language. We can certainly call that difficult and that would be more than kind. The Merkley case seems vaguer.

Just for the record, is this all that we know about Merkley's "character issues" - that he has not gotten along with his coaches?

I am always skeptical about stories like this, because in many instances of job-related behavior "character issues" and "difficult" are used as code words by some people to dismiss individuals who have unique personalities and identities.

Hockey locker rooms have very rigid cultures and hierarchies. We know PK Subban have struggles with these and we know that he is an upstanding person. Although I am not suggesting that Merkley is the same type of guy, maybe skepticism about some of these insinuations is warranted.

DeAngelo has a documented history of using homophobic and racist language. We can certainly call that difficult and that would be more than kind. The Merkley case seems vaguer and therefore maybe some skepticism is required.

Click to expand...

It was also vague with Ho-Sang. People don't go on record when a guy is repped by someone like J.P. Barry. You think Bob is going to be loose on words when an agent who feeds him breaks is repping the kid? Hockey-media is more promotional than actual journalism. Shown, by how no NHL source dug up the Hoffman story or was willing to touch it until a local Ottawa reporter broke it.

We hardly heard anything about Kabanov pre-draft. But, it turned out he was just getting blackout drunk his entire time at his billets.

George Burnett has coached both kids, and tried to dismiss the PK Subban/Merkley comparisons pretty heavily.

It was also vague with Ho-Sang. People don't go on record when a guy is repped by someone like J.P. Barry. You think Bob is going to be loose on words when an agent who feeds him breaks is repping the kid? Hockey-media is more promotional than actual journalism. Shown, by how no NHL source dug up the Hoffman story or was willing to touch it until a local Ottawa reporter broke it.

We hardly heard anything about Kabanov pre-draft. But, it turned out he was just getting blackout drunk his entire time at his billets.

George Burnett has coached both kids, and tried to dismiss the PK Subban/Merkley comparisons pretty heavily.

Click to expand...

If I were an NHL scout or general manager, I would definitely consider the "where there's smoke there's fire" way of looking at this situation. So I would be cautious.

But my point is that we should use concepts like "character issues" carefully, rather than throwing them around as if behavioral distinctions can be that easily labeled and dismissed. And now the DeAngelo comparisons are coming up even though they do not have a firm foundation, all because we rely too much on broad generalizations about "difficult" people.